Centre for Cities

City Minutes: How can we level up struggling UK towns?

Our research shows that not every UK town is struggling. What can we learn from successful towns about the levelling up agenda? What are the main characteristics that differentiate strong towns from weaker ones and what policy is needed to make long-lasting change?

This City Minutes explores these questions as part of our wider ongoing work into the performance of UK towns in the context of levelling up.

In the second episode, host Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel to discuss how we can bring greater prosperity to towns that are struggling.

Explore our work on levelling up towns here.

City Minutes: Exploring the cities versus towns debate

The cities versus towns debate is often unhelpfully pitched as an ‘us versus them’ scenario. What is the nature of the economic relationship between cities and towns and how does it play out across the UK? What implications does the debate have for policy makers and people alike?

This City Minutes explores these questions as part of our wider ongoing work into the performance of UK towns in the context of levelling up.

In the first episode, host Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst Kathrin Enenkel to discuss the symbiotic relationship between cities and towns and how they benefit from each other.

Explore our work on levelling up towns here. 

City Minutes: How to level up... public services

What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?

City Minutes is exploring these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.

In the fourth episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Director of Policy and Research Paul Swinney to discuss the impact of a decade of austerity on the UK's largest cities and towns and the policy interventions needed to reverse these and level up public services.

Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.

City Minutes: How to level up... transport

What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?

City Minutes is exploring these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.

In the third episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Researcher Tom Sells to discuss the policy interventions needed to level up the public transport system in cities and large towns.

Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.

City Minutes: How to level up... high streets and city centres

What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?

City Minutes is exploring these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.

In the second episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Analyst Valentine Quinio to discuss the challenges that our high streets and city centres face, and the policy interventions needed to support them.

Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.

City Minutes: How Covid-debt and Covid-saving will shape post-pandemic cities

The UK’s lockdown and restrictions have meant that some people are likely to have accumulated savings over the past 15 months, which could now be used to refuel the economy as we enter the recovery phase. However, Centre for Cities’ latest research reveals these Covid-savings are not distributed evenly across the country, as not everyone has had the same experience of the pandemic.

Elena Magrini and Tom Sells - authors of Centre for Cities’ recent report - join Chief Executive Andrew Carter to share their reflections on how the pandemic has affected people’s spending, saving and debt in different ways and what this means for the recovery of the UK’s cities and largest towns.

City Minutes: How to level up.... skills

What regional inequalities do different parts of the UK face? And which policies should the Government implement to bridge these divides and level up the country?

Over the next few weeks City Minutes will explore these questions in a mini-series on how to level up the UK.

In the first episode, host Andrew Carter speaks with Centre for Cities’ Senior Analyst and skills expert Elena Magrini to discuss the education-related challenges that people in different cities and towns face, and the policy interventions needed to support them.

Find all of our work on how to level up the UK here.

City Minutes: The legacy of sporting events on urban economies

Hosting an iconic sporting event such as the Olympic or Commonwealth Games can help to put a city on the international stage, but do they have a positive long-term economic effect?

For this episode of City Minutes, Senior Analyst Anthony Breach joins Chief Executive Andrew Carter to debate whether big sporting events can make a long-term difference to cities' economies and discuss what policymakers should consider to ensure that these events deliver real long-term economic improvements.

City Talks: Professor Will Jennings on "The Politics of Levelling Up"

Covid-19 has made the job of levelling up, the agenda elevated by the current Government to address the deep geographical inequalities present within the UK, much harder.

The levelling up narrative is made up of many strands and is a concept that has been seen by some as complex, undefined and ambiguous, prompting the question what does the future hold for the agenda over the next twelve months and beyond?

For this episode of City Talks, Andrew Carter is joined by Will Jennings, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Southampton and co-founder of Centre for Towns, who speaks about the realignment of British politics; the political value of levelling up; the five contradictions it imposes; and wider conversations surrounding the agenda within the framework of his latest work.

“The Politics of Levelling Up” is co-authored by Will Jennings, Laurence McKay and Gerry Stoker and published in The Political Quarterly.

This episode is part of the Centre for Cities City Talks podcast series. Please rate, review and share the episode if you enjoyed it.

City Minutes: What do the 2021 metro mayoral elections mean for England's cities?

Last week eight metro mayors were elected to govern England's largest city regions. While the Conservatives cemented their position in parts of the former Red Wall, Labour made gains elsewhere, including in Southern England.

What do these results mean for people living in cities, and how will the Government respond to several new Labour metro mayors? To discuss these questions Andrew Carter is joined by Centre for Cities' Senior Analyst Anthony Breach.